It IS a small world after all........

'Rose Cottage', Relubbus, Cornwall

A little over a week ago I received an email from a lady who had stumbled upon my blog and my post of March 2009, "Relubbus Moor", in which I related the story of my husband returning to England after 56 years and visiting the little cottage he lived in after his birth. She said, "Whilst wandering through the cyberspace earlier, looking for references to places that I have known, loved and wondered what had happened to them....I found your blog - and photos of a little Cornish cottage that we had the pleasure of owning for a while."

A day later I received an email from her father, Roger. He had bought the cottage after the death of Michael's 'Aunt Minnie' and owned it for about 10 years.  In 1941 Michael's Mother, Kitty, was pregnant with him, his Dad was on a ship somewhere serving in WW2 and Kitty was sent further south from Plymouth to live at Minnie Jenkins' cottage at Relubbus in Cornwall.  Michael was born in August that year and went home to the cottage with Kitty.  For the next four years he was doted on by Kitty, Min and her Mother.  Minnie was unmarried at that time and had to be self-sufficient.  The women planted violets and made posies to sell at the local market.  Min used to shoot at crows from the top window; probably to keep them away from the vegie garden.

 

Aunt Min and 'Sparks'

Roger related another amusing story about Aunt Min:

"Villagers told the story of how Minnie fed an old fox quite regularly.  One day the hunt came who were chasing the fox.  The fox ran to Minnie at Rose Cottage and she let him in.  The Master of the hunt, with other red clad mounted "persons', demanded that Minnie hand over the fox.  Minnie went back into the cottage and re-appeared some minutes later armed with a shotgun.  "BE OFF!", she shouted.  "The fox is my friend.  If you take my fox, I will shoot your horses in exchange."  The hunt departed.

"Soon after we bought Rose Cottage (this was a singular saga in its own right) we found a dead fox in a small hovel where there was a semi-rotary pump to pump water from the mine adit in the corner of the garden.  We heard that the old fox had become lame and could not hunt properly.  Some villagers had left out scraps for it in respect for Minnie's memory but when it knew its time had come, it returned to Rose Cottage to die.  

"A blessing on their memories."

Stonehenge  Photo: Simon Wakefield

Roger also made mention of ley lines, something I didn't know of but I'm going to look further in to as I find it most interesting.  Click on the highlighted text for Paul Deveraux's site, one I found explaining all.  Roger said, and I quote:

"The ley lines that go through Stonehenge are well known.  A lady rented the cottage from me for a while and claimed that the ley lines go right through Rose Cottage.  She claimed to have been "visited" by Minnie."

Probably Autumn/Winter

Yesterday I found a photograph of the cottage house, no longer a cottage, as it now stands extensively renovated, immaculate sweeping garden.....it can be viewed here.  Roger visited the house after the renovation and his comments the other day were, "they had ripped the soul from the cottage and destroyed its "presence".  It was a soulless showpiece and to my viewpoint, a tragedy, a great and irredeemable loss." And this, "It will remain forever bright in my memory, for the love and comfort it exuded from its ancient stones were well beyond earthly price."  We couldn't have put it better!!